Spotlight on STARTEK

Imagine waking up and looking forward to going into the office for a full day on the job. It’s what employees at STARTEK experience daily – and we’re about to tell you why.

The comprehensive customer contact center and business outsourcing company sought out Myrtle Beach as a place to call home and opened its doors in fall 2014. By working with the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation, STARTEK was able to take notice of key factors alive and well here in its new location: the quality of the area workforce, proximity to training resources at Horry-Georgetown Technical College, telecommunications infrastructure in the area, and the overall quality of life in the Myrtle Beach area.

The customer support headquarters is housed within a newly built 50,000-square-foot facility at Towne Center in the fast-growing Carolina Forest section of Horry County. And it’s what happens within those four walls that make a difference during the workday and beyond into the community.

“Every month, we celebrate employee birthdays and anniversaries,” says Stephanie Schneider, recruiting manager with STARTEK. “We think it’s important to engage with our employees and let them know that they’re special to us.”

Schneider has held her role since November 2012 and just joined the Myrtle Beach team after working with the company from home. “We felt this was an area that we could really bring many full time positions to,” she says. “We liked the idea of providing a place people can look at starting a career, with the opportunity to continue long term. At STARTEK, we’re big on internal promotion and moving employees along the fast track into management.”

An additional workplace perk is STARTEK’s onsite fitness center, free to employees. “We also feature a wellness board, complete with tips for maintaining a good physical health and wholesome diet,” says Schneider.

But it’s not just the employees that STARTEK looks after; the company as a whole also believes in giving back to the communities they live and work in. Last year, employees contributed 340 volunteer hours and donated nearly $7,000 to charitable organizations like Helping Hands, Coastal Animal Rescue Shelter, Street Reach Food Drives, American Cancer Society, American Red Cross, Cystic Fibrosis, Boys and Girls Club and more.

Employees are encouraged (not required) to participate in community outreach by attending committee meetings each quarter, which gives them time off the phone at the call center and hands-on help within the community.

Schneider describes a Penny Wars competition at STARTEK, in which everyone brings in empty milk jugs and fills them with pennies. Whomever collects the most pennies gets to donate all the pennies to the charity of his or her choice. “Employees really enjoy actually seeing that act of giving back,” she says.

STARTEK also gives back to their own. Employees are also known as “Brand Warriors,” because they’re committed to making a positive impact on their clients’ business results. Hence, STARTEK’s Warriors In Need (WIN) organization, which gives temporary relief to qualified employees in need. In 2015, WIN was able to support employees in need through $36,000 donated from participating employee paychecks; $3,800 of that total was used here in Myrtle Beach.

Those are numbers that prove an employee isn’t just a number at STARTEK.

For more information on the charitable company culture at STARTEK, visit www.STARTEK.com.